DOVER, Del. - Delaware State University is having its largest graduating class ceremony on Friday, May 15, with the Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony at 8 a.m. at Alumni Stadium and the Graduate Commencement Ceremony at 1 p.m. in the Dr. William B. DeLauder Theatre on its Dover campus.
According to the university, more than 1,000 undergraduate candidates, nearly 300 graduate candidates, and 270 associate degree candidates will receive their degrees.
55% of the in-state graduating class are Inspire Scholars who are recipients of DSU's signature scholarship for Delaware high school graduates with a minimum 2.75 GPA. The program awards four years of full tuition.
DSU will also graduate 270 students with associate degrees, who are the first full cohort to complete their studies under Delaware State's stewardship following the historic acquisition of Wesley College.
Also during the ceremony, the university will confer the first degrees of its inaugural Jamaican MBA cohort, the founding class of a partnership traceable to the Honorable Andrew Holness, Prime Minister of Jamaica, who delivered the University's 2024 graduate commencement address.
The Class of 2026 includes ten graduates entering medical school this fall and a larger group bound for law schools across the country. Those students are Adesola Akinwale, Noah Dixon, Tymere Thomas, Jared Bryant, Mahin Muntasir, Razia Khan Sharme, Na'ja Stokes, Sydney Brown, and Jamayah Robertson.
The undergraduate ceremony will also be marked by the presence of Susan Browne, Delaware State's oldest living alumna at age 108. It will also feature commencement remarks from Thasunda Brown Duckett, President and Chief Executive Officer of TIAA.Â
The Graduate Commencement Ceremony will feature remarks from Rosie Allen-Herring, the newly named Interim President and Chief Executive Officer of United Way Worldwide.
The ceremonies will feature remarks from both Thasunda Brown Duckett and Rosie Allen-Herring. (DSU)
"Every commencement is a sermon written in the lives of students," said Tony Allen, Ph.D., President of Delaware State University. "And this one preaches loudly. The largest class in our history. More Inspire Scholars than ever before."
